A customer makes a sports bet at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City N.J. on March 17, 2022 just before the March Madness NCAA college basketball tournament began.
Wayne Parry | AP Photo
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio isn’t exactly the fastest state when it comes to launching its sports betting program. Of surrounding states where sports betting is legal, only Michigan was slower to get their program up and running.
When sports gaming launches in Ohio on Jan. 1, 2023, the deadline set by state lawmakers, 374 days will have passed since Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill on Dec. 23, 2021.
So what’s the hold-up? A mix of typical bureaucracy and the realities of how the program was designed to incorporate all the different players who want a cut of the $3.35 billion state officials think gamblers eventually will bet each year, according to observers and state officials.
“There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen on this one,” said Andy Herf, a lobbyist who represented bar owners during the process of writing the sports-betting law.
When DeWine signed the bill, officials with the state agency tasked with setting up the program held out the possibility that sports betting could launch sometime in late 2022. But they slammed the door on that possibility earlier this month, when they announced that Jan. 1, 2023, is going to stick.
Compared to Ohio’s projected 374 days, other states were significantly faster from law signing to launch, cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer has found. That includes Indiana (116 days), West Virginia (177 days) and Pennsylvania (185 days). Though in Michigan, bettors made their first online wagers on Jan. 22, 2021, 399 days after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the bill into law. And in-person, casino-style betting didn’t happen until two months later, in March 2021.
Heading out more broadly into the region, only Tennessee (489 days) took longer than Ohio is supposed to take to set up sports betting. But unlike Ohio, which has offered casino gambling since 2009, Tennessee was building a gambling program from the ground-up.
Other states include Iowa (89 days), Wisconsin (151 days), Illinois (255 days) and New York (264 days) – although Wisconsin is a little different, since sports gaming there is authorized through a compact between the state government and local Native American tribes.
Sports betting has been a long time coming in Ohio. State lawmakers first introduced a legalization bill in July 2018, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law restricting sports betting to Nevada. All of Ohio’s neighbors, except for Kentucky, moved to legalize sports betting. Meanwhile, Ohio lawmakers debated more than three years over issues like what state agency would regulate it, how sports gambling would be taxed and what types of companies would be allowed to offer it.
Passing the bill took long enough. Now state officials have to get sports betting up and running.
Ohio has a bad recent track record promptly launching new legalization programs. Then-Gov. John Kasich signed a bill legalizing medical marijuana in June 2016. But it wasn’t until January 2019 that the first retail marijuana shop opened.
That’s in part why lawmakers set a solid launch date in the new sports-betting bill. And Jessica Franks, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Casino Control Commission, said the agency is working to meet it.
“We understand people would like it to be earlier, but that doesn’t preclude us from following all the very detailed requirements of the sports gaming law,” Franks said.
At the urging of the myriad players involved in lobbying for the bill, Ohio set a universal launch date for all industry players, even though online betting apps could begin almost at the push of a button.
Next-fastest would be casinos, which have to physically build out sports books, but which have experience doing it and could have been close to done by now.
Letting each group start offering betting when they were ready probably would mean the program would launch faster. But it would leave behind bars and restaurants, which want to offer betting kiosks, and are trying to navigate unfamiliar territory, said Herf, the industry lobbyist.
“There’s no doubt the sports books could have been up and running already,” Herf saids. “But being first to market would have been a huge advantage. The legislature didn’t want to push the advantage in any direction, and hence, the universal start date.”
Who’s controlling it all?
Besides the universal start date, the multiple agencies involved with regulating the industry has slowed the timeline.
There’s the Ohio Casino Control Commission, which is responsible for developing the bulk of program rules, setting qualifications for applicants, limits on advertising and other consumer protections, and the specifics of ensuring integrity by looking for suspicious betting patterns, among other topics. State officials also solicit feedback for each set of rules from industry players, before and after they’re written.
Then there’s the Common Sense Initiative, a different agency that reviews rules proposed by state agencies for their effects on businesses. After the CSI, rules must get sign-off from the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, a panel that includes state lawmakers.
And then there’s the Ohio Lottery Commission, which plays a role in regulating the smaller sports-betting kiosks at bars and restaurants. While the casino control commission is responsible for approving companies that actually provide the betting kiosks, the lottery commission is involved with pre-approving the individual businesses where the kiosks will be.
Finally, the Ohio Department of Development must certify tourism numbers for some applicants, since lawmakers extended the option to some smaller counties to have physical betting sites, but only if they can document visits by 4 million people.
Some of the faster states had more ad hoc launches, letting casinos take bets as soon as they were ready, sometimes with relatively little fanfare. But Jeff Edelstein, a sports-betting industry analyst who writes for SportsHandle.com, said a universal launch date can create extra competition between gambling providers to the advantage of bettors.
“It’s probably a more robust experience for the consumer as well because a lot of these sports books, and they’re dying for customers, so they offer bonusing,” he said.
A concerted launch date also will help build hype and interest in betting on sports, especially if say, Ohio State University’s football team is in a bowl game in January 2023, Edelstein said.
“There’s going to be a lot of drumbeat and hoopla leading up to it, whereas if it was a dribs and drabs kind of thing, it wouldn’t have been the same,” he said.
What’s been done so far and what’s next?
Franks, the official with the casino control commission, said the agency has approved one batch of rules and is in the process of approving four more.
And as for what’s next, next Wednesday, on June 15, an application window will open for what the state calls Class A – online betting platforms – and Class B – physical, casino-style betting locations – applicants.
On July 15, Class C hosts – the small kiosks in businesses with on-site liquor permits, like bars, restaurants and bowling alleys, will be able to apply. There are later deadlines for businesses to submit compliance documents like gaming plans, as well as job applications for employees for background checks.
And the casino control commission says it will have everything approved by Jan. 1, 2023.
The Ohio Lottery Commission also plays a role in approving Class C hosts, by basically pre-approving them for the Casino Control Commission.
And lottery officials have preapproved 469 Type C applications.
Pat McDonald, the lottery commission director, announced the application numbers at a lottery commission meeting on Wednesday, according to Gongwer News.
At the meeting, McDonald also said he’s heard complaints from media outlets and elected officials that sports betting is taking too long to launch.
“It’s not as easy as it may sound to some people,” McDonald said.
